Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has received almost £15 million from donors and companies linked to offshore tax havens, according to a new investigation that raises major questions about who is funding the party’s rapid rise.
Analysis of Electoral Commission records found that nearly 80% of the £18.6 million donated to Reform last year came from individuals or businesses connected to offshore financial networks, including tax havens such as Jersey, Guernsey, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands.
The revelations are likely to fuel accusations of hypocrisy against a party that claims to represent “ordinary patriotic Britons” while being bankrolled by multimillionaires, crypto investors and wealthy former Tory donors with overseas interests.
Reform’s largest financial backer was Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, who handed the party £12 million in 2025, including a record-breaking £9 million donation. Harborne has emerged as one of the most influential figures behind Farage’s political operation and was also revealed to have personally gifted Farage a separate £5 million payment before the last general election.
Farage has insisted the payment was intended to fund his long-term security arrangements, though he later described it as a “reward” for his years campaigning for Brexit. The Reform leader has repeatedly brushed off concerns surrounding his outside earnings and financial backers, claiming voters simply “do not care”.
The second biggest donor to Reform was party treasurer Nick Candy, who donated almost £1 million. Candy’s global property empire includes companies linked to Luxembourg and Guernsey, both widely associated with offshore finance structures used by the ultra-wealthy.
Deputy leader Richard Tice also contributed more than £600,000 through his investment company. Tice previously established an offshore family trust in Jersey and controlled a Channel Islands-based company.
Another major donor, businessman Bassim Haidar, donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Reform after relocating from Britain to Dubai following Labour’s crackdown on non-dom tax rules. Haidar previously stated that his biggest concern was tax on global wealth and inheritance.
Together, the four men contributed almost £14 million to Reform in a single year, making up the overwhelming majority of the party’s funding.
The investigation also identified a further group of donors with offshore links contributing sums ranging from £25,000 to £200,000. Among them was construction giant JCB, linked to the billionaire Bamford family, whose wealth has reportedly been connected to Bermudan trust structures. Other donations came from companies ultimately linked to offshore entities in Jersey, the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands.
Researchers found that several of Reform’s biggest donors had provided overseas addresses to Companies House, while hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations could not be conclusively linked to identifiable individuals.
There is no suggestion that Reform UK or any of the donors broke the law. However, critics argue the scale of offshore-linked money flooding into British politics exposes serious weaknesses in transparency and political funding rules.
Green energy entrepreneur Dale Vince, whose organisation Babelfish carried out the analysis, warned that wealthy elites and foreign-linked money were increasingly shaping British politics behind the scenes.
He said the growing influence of billionaires, corporations and crypto wealth risked creating a political system where parties serve the interests of donors rather than the public.
Labour Party Chair Anna Turley also attacked Farage over the revelations, accusing Reform of being “propped up by rich foreign friends and tax haven billionaires” while ordinary families struggle through the cost of living crisis.
The controversy comes as Reform UK continues to surge in the polls and position itself as a major force in British politics. But critics say the investigation exposes a sharp contradiction at the heart of Farage’s movement: a party claiming to speak for working people while relying heavily on the fortunes of offshore millionaires and global financiers.